About 1876 there was a great advance in the production of breadstuffs in the United States. The vast wheat fields of Dakota were opened up to cultivation, and with improved farm machinery and facilities for handling the immense volume of grain there produced, grinding it into flour, or exporting it in bulk by waterways to European ports, an immense industry grew up and greatly added to the volume of our foreign trade. The United States became at once the greatest exporter of wheat and breadstuffs in the world, selling about one-half its crop to foreign countries. The method of manufacturing flour was revolutionized and cheapened about this time by new milling processes, and with low rates for shipment by rail and water routes to the seaboard through the Great Lakes and Erie Canal to New York or the St. Lawrence River to Montreal, where it was loaded into ocean steamers, we were able to supply Europe with breadstuffs cheaper than from any other source. In 1867 the United States exported a little over eight per cent, of its wheat product, but in 1880, with the increased production and foreign market opened up, this percentage had risen to more than forty per cent., and now Great Britain buys four-sevenths of all the flour the United States has to sell.

The McKinley bill which became a law in 1890 enlarged the free list, but advanced the duty upon many manufactured articles. The sugar consumed in the United States in 1890 amounted to nearly 1,500,000 tons, of which only 250,000 tons were domestic product. Thus the protective duty on this article, while benefiting the Louisiana planters, served to raise the price on all sugar consumed throughout the country, and had little effect in increasing the volume of the domestic output, owing to the fact that the area of sugar land in the South was limited. On the other hand to remove the duty entirely would destroy the sugar planters of the South, who would be utterly unable to compete against the sugar growers of Cuba, owing to the fact that sugar can be produced much cheaper in Cuba than in Louisiana. The Cuban grower does not replant his cane oftener than once in eight or ten years, while the Louisiana planter must replant every second year. The Cuban grower also has the advantage of a more favorable climate and a longer grinding season, with no damage from frosts. Therefore, to protect the Louisiana sugar grower and the public, the McKinley Act put sugar on the free list, and paid a bounty to domestic sugar producers. At the same time a discriminating duty of one-tenth of a cent per pound was placed upon sugar imported from countries which paid a bounty upon sugar exportation.

But the most important and interesting feature of this tariff legislation was the reciprocity feature, due to the far-seeing statesmanship of Secretary of State James G. Blaine.* His foreign policy looked to a trade federation of the countries of the Western Hemisphere. He elaborated the Bureau of American Republics, and through his efforts, under the administration of President Harrison, a Pan-American Congress was held in Washington presided over by Mr. Blaine. Reciprocity treaties were concluded with several countries, considerably extending our trade. Those with Germany, France, Belgium and Italy resulted in relieving American pork from the embargo placed upon it in those countries. Under the policy of reciprocity our foreign commerce increased rapidly. Thus in 1891 we sent to Cuba approximately 115,000 barrels of flour; in 1892, 366,000 barrels; in 1893, 610,000 barrels; in 1894, 662,000 barrels. After the repeal of the act, we sent Cuba in 1895, 380,000 barrels of flour; in 1896, 177,000 barrels; and in 1898, 130,000 barrels.

*Thomas Jefferson was the originator of the reciprocity idea, and in a report to Congress in 1793 recommended reciprocity as the true method of meeting the problem of our foreign commerce.

Nothing has contributed to the commercial growth and development of the United States more than its railroad system, which now reaches, with its multitudinous branches, nearly every village in the eastern half of the republic, and all of the important towns in the western portion, while the trans-continental lines provide great highways of travel and transportation from ocean to ocean. The growth of our railway systems, from their unpropitious beginning in 1827 to their present gigantic proportions, embracing a mileage of nearly 200,000 miles, is one of the most animated chapters in our national history. The United States has a far greater mileage of railways than any other country - more than all Europe, and nearly one-half that of the entire world. About 1,300,000 freight and 26,000 passenger cars run upon these tracks, and the net earnings foot up nearly $400,000,000 per annum. But the railway systems of the United States have not only extended in mileage but in even a greater degree in their capacity to move freight and passengers. The roadbeds are more substantial than formerly, the rails larger, heavier, and of steel instead of iron; the roads have fewer curves, lower gradients, steel bridges, double tracks, larger cars and more powerful engines, so that trains haul heavier loads and make better time.* Numerous safety appliances, signals, improved air brakes and other devices now contribute to the safety of railroad travel, and reduce the loss by accidents. Withal there has been a general cheapening of carrying cargoes, the average cost of carrying a ton of freight one mile now being less than one cent, whereas in 1865 the cost was upwards of three cents. With lower freight rates and quicker service, together with refrigerator cars and special facilities for carrying live stock and perishable articles like meats and fruits, the market for these has widened, their price has cheapened and become more uniform, and the cost of the necessaries of life to the consumer has constantly tended to become lower.

♦The time between Chicago and New York has now been reduced to twenty hours.